


Have Another Drink, Nate

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alcohol, Crack, Gen, Investigations, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 08:19:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3167963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during S1 - when a famous statue in the corner of the waiting room of Leverage Consulting's offices turns out to be real, Nate is the only one who has a problem with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have Another Drink, Nate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TrespassersWill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrespassersWill/gifts).



> Thank you for joining me in this fandom, TrespassersWill, and thank you for letting me talk you into joining us!

_“That’s an amazing replica of Degas’ Ballerina.”_

In retrospect Nate knew he should have thought twice about letting one of his old co-workers come by to see the offices. _Might as well have gone all in and invited Maggie to go browsing through our décor!_ He’d pulled Helen away from the statue before any more damage could be done, but now that it had been called out for him he couldn’t un-see it.

You could only explain away so much to the alcohol, and Nate was pretty sure there wasn’t enough whisky in the _world_ to make that statue anything less than a Very. Bad. Idea.

It was a situation that called for direct confrontation and decisive action, and as the nominal leader of this band of misfit wannabe do-gooders, that was something that fell squarely in the scope of his job description. Plus, it wasn’t as if he didn’t know who was likely responsible – everyone in the business on either side of the legal line knew that Sophie Devereaux had a liking for Degas’ work that bordered on the pathological.

Unfortunately these days Nate needed to be closer to sober than he ever planned on getting again in order to get Sophie to admit something she would prefer to keep secret. _Of course it could be argued that putting it in the corner of the waiting room isn’t exactly trying to keep it a secret,_ the logical part of his brain pointed out.

He went to Hardison.

“Seriously?” The hacker, predictably, was caught somewhere between amused and impressed. “Okay, well – I don’t know, Nate. Yeah I did the basic layout and design according to your specs, but remember I told all you guys to bring in something to personalize the place.” He reached out, clearly intending to touch the statue; Nate slapped his hand down before he could make contact.

Next he confronted Eliot. “Really?” the hitter asked, clearly impressed. “I saw it, of course, but I assumed it was a copy.”

“Do you have any idea who might have been the one to steal it?” Nate asked. Eliot looked at him as if to say, “you know, if you’re _not_ drunk you might want to do something about that. If you are, you might want to stop.”

Or maybe Nate was just projecting.

Eliot did suggest that Parker might have stolen it as a gift for Sophie. After all, Sophie Devereaux did have a thing for Degas that bordered on the pathological.

Nate decided to do something about his state of inebriation before going to talk to Parker.

He’d never been in Parker’s office before. As far as he knew none of them had. Maybe Sophie – she would be that kind of co-worker. Or Hardison, because it was Parker and he would take any opportunity to learn more about the thief. Eliot would have gone in looking for potential security breeches…

Okay, so it was just him. But when he spotted a dozen stolen objects just standing in the open doorway, Nate absolved himself of the sin of not being more curious about the people he shared office space with.

And he poured himself a fresh whisky.

Then another.

What the hell, Eliot was probably right.

When Nate finally caught up with Parker, she didn’t understand what he was asking. Then when he finally made himself clear, she completely failed to understand why he was concerned. “Obviously it’s not a big deal, or people would be making more of a fuss about it missing.”

Nate had already considered that. “Parker, nobody seems to know it’s missing.” Which was of course the exact wrong thing for him to say because then the thief _really_ had no idea why he was so upset.

After failing to discern how a twenty million dollar statue came to occupy a corner of their waiting room, Nate decided to get drunk for three days. Then when he was well and truly hung over he made plans to confront Sophie. She was the obvious perpetrator, the reason why that little wax figure was in the corner laughing at him…

Nate finished off every bottle in the office and retreated to his own office for another three days.

Two weeks later they were forced to blow up the office. Hardison and Eliot saved the oil portrait of “Old Nate” – Nate’s fictional ancestor. Nate saved the twenty million dollar statue.

Everybody looked at him like he was the one who had lost his mind.

And no one ever admitted to being responsible for the statue…although Sophie offered to take possession as the five of them headed in separate directions to try and start their lives over. Nate let her take it in the end – it was easier than arguing with the lot of them as to why it should be returned to the rightful owners.

After all, they weren’t looking for it anyway.


End file.
